Forbes Daily: Immigration Protests Spark California Enforcement Face-Off

Forbes

09-06-2025

Dave's Hot Chicken is known for bringing the heat—and an unlikely group is reaping the rewards from the restaurant chain's success.
The fried chicken company said last week it sold 70% of its business to private equity giant Roark Capital—which also owns brands like Subway, Dunkin' and Buffalo Wild Wings—at a $1 billion overall valuation. Its four cofounders struggled to pull together $900 to launch the first Dave's popup, but they'll now each pocket around $80 million pre-tax.
Timing was key for Dave's. Chicken overtook beef as the most popular meat in the U.S. in 2010, and the trend is boosting other chains like Raising Cane's and Wingstop. Still, the company says it isn't worried about competitors. 'I went into a Popeye's and had their spicy chicken sandwich and said, 'We're going to be rich,'' says CEO Bill Phelps.
Demonstrators protest outside a downtown jail in Los Angeles following two days of clashes with police during a series of immigration raids on June 8, 2025.
Protests against President Donald Trump's immigration raids broke out Friday and continued through Sunday in Los Angeles, leading Trump to deploy National Guard troops—a move criticized as 'inflaming tensions' by California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. At least 60 people were arrested in San Francisco by early Monday after protesters gathering in solidarity with Los Angeles clashed with police.
Despite questions around economic uncertainty in the wake of Trump's tariffs, the U.S. job market was relatively strong in May, according to a monthly report from the Labor Department. The positive data came after an earlier report last week showed the weakest monthly private sector job growth in more than two years, and stocks ended the day on a high note.
Analysts worry Elon Musk's dust-up with President Donald Trump could further weigh on the already-beleagured Tesla, and on Thursday, a group of Goldman Sachs analysts cut their prediction for the company's sales. The analysts slashed their forecast for second-quarter Tesla vehicle deliveries to 365,000, which would be an 18% decline from the same period last year—the weakest quarterly delivery growth since at least 2015.
The fight cost Elon Musk, with his fortune falling by $27 billion Thursday, but he's still come out ahead from his relationship with President Donald Trump. The world's richest man is still $145 billion richer than he was before endorsing Trump last July, worth $394 billion as of late Friday.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches from the Kennedy Space Center, carrying the Intuitive Machines Moon Lander Athena as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative.
The biggest casualty of the feud could be NASA: Last week, Trump considered canceling Musk's government contracts, and Musk responded that SpaceX would decommission its Dragon spacecraft, though he later reversed course. NASA relies heavily on SpaceX for its operations—the company's rockets launched more than half of NASA's space missions last year—and while the agency has other partners in aerospace, many are years behind SpaceX in terms of development.
MORE: While SpaceX has made itself indispensable to the government, some types of contracts could still be vulnerable for cancellation if Trump follows through on his threat. And the administration could make a greater impact by steering new business to others and reorienting its plans.
The Maryland man whom the Trump Administration mistakenly deported to El Salvador was returned to U.S. custody, despite the White House previously insisting it could not bring him back. The administration indicted Kilmar Abrego Garcia on charges of transporting undocumented immigrants after repeatedly claiming without evidence that he belonged to gang MS-13, which he and his family have denied him having any association with.
Temi Fagbenle and the Golden State Valkyries have attracted 10,000 season-ticket buyers—around the same number the Warriors have in the same arena.
The WNBA's Golden State Valkyries are near the bottom of the Western Conference standings in their inaugural season as they start from scratch, but the Bay Area team has already guaranteed itself success on its balance sheet. Forbes estimates the team has locked in at least $20 million in sponsorship revenue this season and is projected to earn another $35 million from its 10,000 season-ticket holders and various premium ticket packages—figures that dwarf what any other WNBA team can generate.
Venture capital veteran Theresia Gouw
Venture capitalist Theresia Gouw is a woman of many firsts. Born in Indonesia to parents of Chinese descent, Gouw immigrated to the U.S. when she was 3 years old. She later became the first person in her high school to attend Brown University, the first female partner at venture capital powerhouse Accel and cofounder of one of the first female-led VC firms in Silicon Valley.
'The American dream is so central to my personal story,' she told Forbes in 2023.
She now has another 'first' to add to her list. Gouw is America's first woman billionaire venture capitalist, worth an estimated $1.2 billion. Much of her fortune stems from her 15-year tenure at Accel, where she was part of the team that led that firm's lucrative early bet on Facebook (now called Meta).
She now runs Acrew Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm that she cofounded in 2019. Acrew raised $700 million in October to invest in data and security, health and fintech startups, bringing the firm's assets under management to $1.7 billion—with an emphasis on diversity, especially through its Diversify Capital Fund.
Women made up just 17% of VC decision makers in 2024, per a PitchBook report. Things likely won't move toward parity anytime soon. On President Donald Trump's first day in office, he issued an executive order mandating the termination of all federal DEI programs that have supported women, people of color, individuals with disabilities and others. In addition, some of the world's biggest companies with powerful corporate venture capital arms, including Google, Meta and Goldman Sachs, have rolled back DEI initiatives.
WHY IT MATTERS How Gouw will respond to the new political environment isn't clear, but for many years she has been a strong advocate for DEI, doubling down on the practice in several ways: starting Acrew, with a founding investment team that's 83% women or people of color; spearheading an initiative to bring historically Black colleges and universities into the VC world; cofounding DEI-focused fund of funds First Close Partners (now with $30 million in assets); and cofounding All Raise, a nonprofit that helps female founders and investors in Silicon Valley network and find mentors.
MORE America's Richest Self-Made Women
President Donald Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill' that passed the House could cause millions to lose coverage through changes to the Affordable Care Act, according to the Congressional Budget Office. It also institutes work requirements for SNAP and Medicaid that would take effect in 2026:
Approximately 7.8 million: The estimated number of people who could lose Medicaid coverage
$715 billion: How much the bill aims to slash in Medicaid, along with $300 billion in SNAP, also known as food stamps
71%: The share of working-age adults on Medicaid who were working full or part time or in school, while an additional 12% were caregivers, according to a 2023 report
There's no perfect time to start a side hustle, but simply getting off the ground with skills you already have can put you on the path to success all the more quickly. Here are some side hustles to consider: service-based, like pet sitting or a cleaning business; creative-based, such as selling artwork online; or a fully digital business, like social media marketing and freelancing.
Bettors are placing wagers on the relationship breakdown between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk. What were the odds on Polymarket that the two would publicly reconcile by July?
A. About 10%
B. About 30%
C. About 50%
D. About 70%
Check your answer.
Thanks for reading! This edition of Forbes Daily was edited by Sarah Whitmire and Chris Dobstaff.